The government, on Thursday, January 26, disclosed that it would majorly focus on telecommunication companies following a draft policy allowing President William Ruto's administration to monitor mobile money transactions.
To hit the Ksh3 trillion revenue target set by Ruto in the next financial year, the government vowed to set up its own systems to monitor transactions on the telecommunication platforms.
Based on the data gathered, they (telecommunication companies) will be required to remit their revenue daily.
In the proposed new scheme, the government intends to integrate mobile money systems within the domains of telcos to gain real-time data on transactions made.
The systems installed on telecommunication companies would help them gather relevant information even on individual money transactions.
However, it will not invade people's privacy in the process, as outlined in the draft 2023 Budget Policy Statement.
"We do not want to rely on the information given to us by the telcos. We want to go in there and see for ourselves so that the deduction can be done on a daily basis.
"We will also use this technology to monitor the people on the telcos to determine what taxes they will contribute depending on their transactions," the government representative stated.
Defending the installation of new sophisticated systems in telcos, the government revealed that it had been tested in some other sectors and contributed to a 50 per cent improvement in revenue collection. The new system also sealed loopholes in revenue collection.
Additionally, the new system is touted to help the government reduce its borrowing spree.
"We have already deployed the technology in other sectors and we have witnessed massive gains. We expect this to happen in the telcos as well," the government insisted.
According to the draft 2023 Budget Policy Statement enforcing the new measures will curb tax cheats in the country and help revive the economy.
"The Government will undertake to roll out electronic Tax Invoice Management System (eTIMS), reduction of Corporate Income Tax (CIT) gap from 32.2 per cent to 30.0 per cent of the potential as envisaged in the KRA Corporate Plan and integration of tax system with the Telecommunication companies (Telcos)," the draft 2023 Budget Policy Statement read.
Ruto, on the other side, maintained that tightening revenue collection was key to enabling the country to fund education.
"Every Kenyan should pay their part of taxes so that the state can have the money to make sure every child of Kenya goes to school without burdening their parents," the Head of State clarified.
